


Like You Wanna Be Loved

by btichcraft



Series: Kiss Me Universe [1]
Category: Legacies (TV 2018), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Canon Compliant, Everyone's gay, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Reincarnated Soulmates, Rewrite, Soulmates, hope and josie are soulmates, how canon should've been
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:55:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21726361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/btichcraft/pseuds/btichcraft
Summary: A season one rewrite in which Hope is the new girl and Josie is her soulmate, angst ensues.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman
Series: Kiss Me Universe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571917
Comments: 15
Kudos: 205





	1. This is the Part Where You Run

**Author's Note:**

> a big thank you to beth and sarah for beta-ing this fic <3

Flashes of blue eyes and a blinding smile fill Josie’s mind when she lays her head down every night. 

She dreams of moments they shared in past lives; small glimpses of what the future possibly holds for her and her soulmate. And while she hasn’t been able to glean much of what she looks like, Josie has been able to learn a tiny bit about her. 

Nothing is clear except the girl’s laugh as her eyes crinkle from behind the canvas she's currently working on; that’s one of the only things consistent with her dreams, her soulmate is an artist in almost every single one. She is always drawing Josie, or whatever else catches her eye, from an apple to their window’s view. She can’t help but wonder if her soulmate will do the same in this lifetime, or if she will prefer something new. 

A large part of Josie hopes that her soulmate still loves painting, knowing that she would be begging for a portrait of herself to be done by the one she loves. But another part of her is silently wishing that she prefers something less creative, considering that Josie can barely draw a straight line even with a ruler. 

She spends every night coming up with more and more questions for the girl, excited for the day they will meet and inevitably fall in love. She’s always been a hopeless romantic in that sense; reading story after story of people finding their soulmates and spending their lives with them until they're old and gray. 

From what Josie has read from books stolen from the Salvatore Library, the entire soulmate theory relies upon the reincarnation of you and your soulmate, as you tend not to live very long after your soulmate themself dies. It can get a little tricky when it comes to vampires and immortal witches, but somehow, nature always works itself out, and it keeps the balance. 

Sometimes she keeps herself up at night, wondering about the girl in her dreams, and if she’ll ever get the chance to meet her. Her luck isn’t the best, especially when it comes to romantic endeavors.

Not everyone is lucky enough to meet the person they are destined for, some people die before they have the chance to ever really look. Nowadays, it's a lot more common that you find the one with numerous apps and meetups dedicated just to the search, but there is always that lingering doubt that most people share: the world is too big and we are far too small. 

But Josie will always have _hope._

. . .

Josie slips into her uniform, letting Lizzie mess with her hair as she sits on her bed.

Lizzie has a gift when it comes to hair and makeup, it is something she’s been perfecting since the womb, so Josie always lets Lizzie help her get ready. 

A knock interrupts the girls’ usual morning routine. 

“Come in.”

MG pops his head in, smiling in the twins’ direction.

“You guys are cutting it close, the new students arrive in five.”

Lizzie gives him a nod in response and the girls follow him, heading downstairs. 

Josie had since pushed the tour to the back of her mind on account of how nervous she was to meet the new students, Hope and Raphael, if she remembered correctly.

Raphael was your run of the mill, average werewolf with anger issues and a tragic backstory to match. Josie’s father believes he killed in girlfriend in a car crash, but whether or not it was intentional remains up for discussion. 

Hope, on the other hand was practically supernatural royalty. Her father Klaus Mikaelson —‘The Great Evil’ as he himself had put it— one of the world’s original vampires, a hybrid and the king of New Orleans. Her mother was a queen in her own right, a werewolf alpha who united two of the original werewolf bloodlines. Her magical lineage doesn’t stop there: hailing as the granddaughter of one of the first witches in history turns her into a tribrid. A.K.A., a hybrid of all three supernatural creatures, not thought possible until her. 

To say she’s intimidated would be an understatement, and it seems to show, as Josie’s body slams into MG’s when he suddenly stops, causing the two to stumble.

“Sorry,” Josie mumbles. 

Her father pushes through the double doors, passing them with a curly-haired boy in tow.

“Hope was just saying goodbye to her aunts, they should be ready for the tour any minute.” 

The twins nod in reply, each girl offering a smile for the clearly uneasy boy. 

Keeping a small smile on her face, Josie walks behind Lizzie as they make their way outside under the awning. Against her father’s car is a tall, well-built teen, probably around the twins’ age, looking confused and tired. To her left, an unfamiliar SUV is parked with two women hugging a small girl’s frame, one of which had a baby propped on her hip, bouncing the child to calm the tears. It seemed as though no one was happy with the girl’s new school, least not the baby. 

The redhead breaks away from the women and baby, presumably her aunts and cousin respectively, quickly wiping her eyes and letting her face drop all visible emotions. She says a final goodbye before turning on her heel and joining the boy where he stands, just outside the front door. 

The girl glances in Josie’s direction before a frown grows on her face. 

She won’t meet either of the twins’ gazes or return their smiles, and Josie can’t help but be a bit bummed, yet it doesn’t seem to bother Lizzie a bit. 

“Welcome to the Salvatore School. We're your tour guides.”

“I'm Josie.”

“I'm Lizzie. Sisters.”

“Twins.”

“Fraternal, obvs.”

Josie goes to link her arm with the girl, Hope, apparently, but Lizzie beat her to it. She doesn’t miss a beat and grabs the boy’s- Raphael, by process of elimination- arm instead before leading the two into the school and down the hall.

Josie couldn’t help but notice the quiet whispers that followed them as they walk.

“Everybody gets along with everybody here, for the most part,” Josie says. 

“The wolves are pretty cliquey. They like to hang with their own,” Lizzie adds. 

“In defiance of the school's commitment to inclusiveness,” Josie pipes up.

“That is why we volunteered to be your tour guides, to give you a good witch-welcome before your hairier brethren corrupt you.”

“I guess this only half applies to you, Hope,” Josie says with a small smile, which Hope half-heartedly returns.

Josie can’t even begin to imagine how hard it will be for Hope to fit in here. It’s almost a guarantee that the wolves won’t be accepting her with open arms, and she’s sure the witches will be weird about her too. Josie wishes she could change it, but this is their reality; even though all three supernatural species live under one roof, it does not mean they’re all happy about it. But Hope is probably no stranger to this. 

From what Josie had learned from hushed conversations with her father, Hope had lived through a constant power struggle between the witches, werewolves, and vampires in New Orleans. And yet as they continue to walk the halls well-known to her, Josie can’t help but hope that this place will feel more like home than any other school ever could. 

The four teenagers pause outside a classroom to listen in on the lesson.

“That's our librarian, Mr. Williams. He's subbing for our Chemistry of Magic teacher, who accidentally incinerated himself last week in hellfire,” Josie says, pointing. 

“Burned all the hair off his body, but didn't leave a scar.”

They all turn their attention to the man drawing on the chalkboard. 

“Now, this language has been carefully crafted over centuries. So, you may think you can play fast and loose with the syllables, but you'd be very wrong about that. Because otherwise, a love charm becomes a what?” He pauses during looks around the class.

“Penelope, show us,” he says.

Penelope turns in her chair to face the class and hallway, clearly enjoying her little audience. 

“She who shall not be named,” Lizzie groans.

“Talking about her gives her power,” Josie replies softly.

“Who are you talking about?” Raphael asks, looking more than mildly confused. 

“Josie's evil ex.”

Josie can’t help but frown angrily at this, and her frown gets deeper as Penelope sends a wink her way, clearly hearing their conversation. 

“Phesmatos is lucas odoray,” Penelope says as a gold orb appears hovering over her hands expanding until it pops releasing smoke into the air. Smoke that must really smell judging by the look on the class’s face. 

“That's right! A _stink_ spell. Yes!” Dorian motions excitedly.

A small smile appears on Josie’s face watching Penelope cough on the fumes.

Lizzie lets out a small cough and turns towards the other three.

“Come on. We'll show you to the turret. It’s where the seniors go to smoke.”

“What do they smoke? Eye of newt?” Raphael laughs.

“Weed,” Josie smiles back pulling the two along. She thinks she heard Hope laugh, but by the time she turns, Hope’s emotionless mask is back in place. 

Josie still can’t help but find Hope cute despite the facade Hope is desperately trying to keep up. 

. . .

The four of them walk the standard route around the school, showing the two newbies the essentials before walking out back to the sports field to catch a game of wickery. 

The four walk the sideline of the field and watch as some of the witches move the ball through the air using telekinesis while others conjure rings. The vampires and werewolves take the ball from the witches and attempt to throw it through the rings. 

“Alyssa Chang made a broom fly in physics last year, but Rick Rogers fell thirty feet during practice, so real-life Quidditch remains an elusive pipe dream,” Lizzie sighs. “It's called Wickery. My parents invented it when we were ten.”

Josie splits from the group in favor of heading over to MG on the stands. 

“Hey,” she says, smoothing out her skirt as she sat down. 

“Yo,” MG says. “Giving up dibs on the new girl so quickly?”

Josie forces a fake smile onto her face, clearly not okay with her decision. 

“It's not a competition. Plus, I'm still nursing a wounded soul.”

“Penelope Park?” MG hums. 

“We don't mention her name anymore, remember?”

“Sorry,” MG laughs, but Josie isn’t amused. 

The two look over at the trio sitting on the front bench. Raphael is entranced by the game, and Hope looks like she’d rather be anywhere but there. Lizzie seems nervous, avoiding eye contact and wringing her hands. 

“Do you think she'll go for Lizzie?” MG asks. 

“Probably,” Josie says with a sigh. “They usually do.”

Josie and MG turn back to the game, cheering as the jersey team makes another goal. MG talks about his English homework and whatever else comes to mind, and Josie feels at ease. Of course, she’s not the happiest with the Hope-Lizzie situation, but she’s used to it by now. 

MG taps on her shoulder, directing her attention to a very upset Lizzie stomping away from Hope, who seemed to be going in the opposite direction. 

Josie carefully maneuvers her way off the stands and heads in Hope’s direction, promising to herself that she’ll check on Lizzie later. 

“Will you get Raf?” Josie calls back. MG nods, and makes his way over to the very confused werewolf. 

“Hope,” Josie calls out. “Wait!”

She tries to catch up to the tribrid, but Hope is moving too fast. 

“Did Lizzie say something? Whatever it was, I’m sure it just came out wrong,” Josie tries to explain, huffing her breath.

Hope stops abruptly and turns around, causing Josie to smack right into her. 

“Listen, I’m really not in the mood to hear you defend your sister.” Hope mutters, turning on her heel again and walking back in the opposite direction of the school. 

“Hey! At least let me show you to your room,” Josie called out, ever the helper.

“I can find it myself,” Hope replied stubbornly; but unbeknownst to herself, she was walking in the direction of the stables, instead of the dorms. 

“Well you’re going in the wrong direction,” Josie shouted out to her, clearly becoming frustrated. 

Hope turned around, letting out a heavy sigh.

“Lead the way,” she motioned to Josie. 

The walk back to the school was awkward and long. Josie tried to make conversation, but Hope only responded with one word answers until Josie finally got the hint and piped down. 

Josie knew that making friends at school would be hard for Hope if she didn’t start opening up a bit, but something told her that Hope was okay with being alone. 

“Thanks for walking me back,” Hope said softly, breaking the silence, refusing to meet Josie’s eyes. 

“It’s no problem,” Josie says. “Really.” 

She offers up the girl another polite smile but Hope doesn’t see it. She just steps inside her dorm and gives Josie a small wave before closing the door. 

Josie lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

. . . 

Josie gets a text from MG a little after 7 telling her about a party happening at the Old Mill, but she really isn’t up to a party right now. Instead, she heads to the library to do some research on offensive spells.

Unsurprisingly, there isn’t much on such spells, what with offensive magic being almost completely bannd, but Josie is nothing if not determined. 

If their school _really_ was all about protecting its students, and preparing them for the rest of their supernatural life, offensive magic would be a must. Josie herself had been working on a presentation to give her father on the matter. 

Josie kept thinking about her presentation on herwalk to the kitchen. It wasn’t yet past curfew, but it was getting close, so she continued moving with a pep in her step, thinking about the Red Delicious apple she was going to cut up. 

Her thoughts of a late-night snack are ruined when she sees the kitchen’s current condition—MG, with his tongue down Penelope’s throat. Josie immediately turns to leave, when she suddenly sees the veins under MG’s eyes as she’s pivoting to leave, and she knows what’s really going on.

MG knew better than to feed on someone at school, but especially someone like Penelope Park. Penelope, on the other hand, had never seemed to care much about the rules.

“MG?” Josie called out, feeling confused and betrayed. 

The two break apart and Penelope smirks, wiping her bottom lip with her thumb. 

Josie feels sick to her stomach and almosts runs back to her dorm, not feeling up to that apple anymore, or her friendship with MG for that matter. 

“Hey Jo”

Lizzie was already in bed, the sound of the door seeming to have woken her. Josie padded over to her twin and slid into her bed quietly. 

“I just saw MG with his tongue down you-know-who's throat,” Josie confesses.

Lizzie gasps as she lays her head on Josie’s shoulder, getting comfortable.

“Gross,” Lizzie hisses out. “He should know better than to make out with the Dark Lord. Bad friend move.”

“Yeah,” Josie whispers back, feeling drained from the whole encounter. 

“Just, forget about her. Focus on somebody new. A good crush will even you out.”

And maybe Lizzie was right, maybe she should focus on somebody new. There was something about Hope that just drew her in, and Josie realized she wanted to explore that more. If only the girl wasn't so closed off, Josie pondered quietly, maybe they could at least be friends, if not more. 

Maybe Josie was getting ahead of herself, having a crush on a girl that’s spoken maybe a total of five words to her in the past twelve hours. But there was just something special about Hope, and Josie was determined to find out what it was. 

“I'm setting my sights on Hope,” Lizzie says with a smile. “If she ever speaks to me again, after I was such a freak show.”

Josie’s chest constricts, and she feels like she can’t breathe. 

Of course, Lizzie wants to go after her. She had practically called dibs on her the moment she met Hope. Josie wasn’t surprised, Lizzie always seemed to share the same crushes as her, and Lizzie always won them over before Josie could even think of something to say. 

But this time, Josie hopes Hope will be different.


	2. Some People Just Want to Watch the World Burn

The sound of spray paint and laughter is what wakes Hope up.

Hope had never much been of a deep sleeper; she was always on edge for one reason or another, but after her parents died, it just got worse. 

Now, she spends most of her nights awake, painting or reading to pass the time. It seems as though every time she lays her head down at night, her mind conjures up the worst memories possible. Sometimes those memories are of her parents’ sacrifices for her, but even worse are the few happy memories that she still clings to, reminding her even in an unconscious state that she was utterly alone. Dreams of happy memories were always worse than the nightmares.

Happy memories would always hurt more, and maybe it was because Hope knew that she will never have memories like that again. Or that she’ll never smile like she used to, at least. 

She selfishly hopes she’ll find happiness like that again in her soulmate, but Hope cannot in good conscious subject anyone to her life and the problems that come with it. She does not want to be any more of a burden for someone she cares about.

Especially for the girl she now knows is her soulmate—Josie. 

Hope knew who she was within seconds of meeting her, recognizing her dainty hands from her dreams. In every life they’d shared, Josie couldn’t help but take a liking to music of some sort. It didn’t matter if it was the piano or the guitar, or just plain singing, because dear heavens did she have a beautiful voice, if she was able to create an assonance with her talents, she was happy. 

If sirens existed, Josie would be one for sure; her voice was melodious and her hands were hypnotizing as they glided across her instrument of choice. Hope just wants to hear her play live at least once before the inevitable were to happen- her ruining their nonexistent relationship somehow. 

It had crossed her mind for a moment, that maybe telling Josie wouldn’t be such a bad idea, but Hope always screwed things up and people had a tendency to leave because of it. 

Hope knew it was selfish, but part of her hoped Josie would notice they were soulmates sooner rather than later, and make the first move so Hope didn’t have to. Maybe then she could feel okay with them being together… if it wasn’t her that had instigated it. 

But for now, Hope decided to keep Josie at an arm’s length distance, hopefully preventing both of them from heartbreak.

Hope looks down her window to see a group of teenage boys defacing one of the school’s vans; so that’s what woke her up. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes as they began running away laughing. 

All these random humans coming onto the campus was risky, but especially so today given the whole Landon situation. 

The curly haired boy that had showed up with Raphael apparently stole a magical artifact from the library last night, and was now on the run. Normally, Hope wouldn’t care about humans or their petty thievery, but this juvenile now knew everything about her new school and was threatening to ruin it.

As expected, Hope wasn’t thrilled when her Aunt Freya told her that she would be going to the Salvatore School. She had seen feuds between the supernatural species first hand in New Orleans, and putting a bunch of different and powerful supernaturals under the same roof seemed like a recipe for disaster. 

It also didn't sound like a good idea for her specifically, being the only tribrid in existence and all… a cosmic mistake. 

Her Aunt Freya told her to stop thinking of herself as a mistake, but as a miracle. It wasn’t easy though.

Hope had considered offering her help in dealing with the stolen artifact incident, but had ultimately decided against it. The school itself had probably dealt with dozens of these problems before, and they had seemingly handled it before her, so they obviously still could now. She also thought her help might come across as annoying or overbearing; the new kid telling people what to do on her first day. 

Definitely not the best idea.

. . .

Hope’s walk to the dining hall was tense to say the least. 

She had barely left her dorm room when the whispers and stares started. She expected some degree of weirdness from her classmates, but this was on another level. 

It made Hope insanely insecure. On top of normal teenage hormones making her feel extremely self-conscious, being looked like circus act wherever she went made it ten times worse. 

She wished she could just choose to shut them all out, but Hope craved validation and acceptance from her peers, and her family especially. 

It was difficult, but Hope kept her head held high and finished the excruciatingly long walk through the halls. 

The dining hall was packed, everyone chatting and eating what looked to be a solid gourmet breakfast. The students seemed to be split into species; the witches at the center, vampires in the corner and groups of wolves heading outside. 

The clear definition of groups made Hope uneasy, having not a clue where she could sit. Just as she was thinking over her best course of action, she spotted Josie and Lizzie waving her over. 

Hope locked eyes with Josie and was awestruck by her warm smile gently beckoning her to come over. For a second, she was tempted, but Josie had no idea what she was getting herself into, and Hope knew she deserved so much more. 

With a small, polite wave, Hope turned around and started heading back to her room without breakfast, her stomach already beginning to protest. 

. . . 

Adjusting to living away from home is very strange.

Luckily though, her aunts paid for her to have a single room so she wouldn’t be forced to fraternize with some random student, and Hope was eternally grateful. 

The walls were a neutral beige but looked almost gold where the glow of her string lights reflected against the wall. The floors were a dark cherry wood, with an old and musty carpet the school had provided— definitely something Hope was looking into changing. 

Her dorm wasn’t super personalized, just a few comforting items from home and some light decor her Aunt Freya had insisted on. She brought an absurd amount of photos of her family and a select choice of her father’s paintings; all hung up with Command Hooks, of course. 

It was a soothing reminder of her past; seeing the smiling faces of her aunts and uncles looking down upon her. She brought a few photos of her parents but they remained in their respective box, unpacked. It still hurt too much, she didn’t know if it would ever stop hurting.

Even though Hope had most certainly made plans to stay away from Josie, she was still thinking about trying to make some friends; to treat her time at the Salvatore School as a fresh start. 

But of course, Hope was tragically awkward when it came to anything social despite her Aunt Rebekah’s teachings. She would always just prefer spending time alone rather than with a group of people. Aunt Freya theorized that it probably came from growing up as an only child surrounded by adults, with no one her own age to play with. 

Hope was halfway through a bag of stale popcorn from her road trip to Mystic Falls when a knock upon her door echoed through the room. 

She groaned, pausing Cutthroat Kitchen and dragging herself to the door in her fuzzy slippers. Behind the door was a pretty brunette with a smirk, and to say Hope was confused would be an understatement. 

“Uhm, hello?” Hope raised an eyebrow at the intruder.

“Hi, I’m Penelope,” The brunette divulged, extending her hand to Hope, who shook it with caution. “I wanted to personally invite you to the game.”

“What game?”

“Our annual football game against the townies,” Penelope’s voice picked up at the end, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Hope had never been the biggest fan of sports, especially team sports like football. Hope knew the game would be such a bore, but she also literally had nothing better to do. 

“I’ll pass,” She says and goes to shut the door when a manicured hand stops her. 

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Penelope implored with another smirk.

Hope had a feeling the intruder at her door wouldn’t be taking no for an answer. With a sigh, she toed off her slippers in favor of a pair of boots and closed the door to her room. 

“Shall we?” Penelope smiled, holding an arm out.

. . . 

The first two quarters of the game were an absolute bust, but the Salvatore Stallions really started to pull through in the second half. 

According to Penelope, they were supposed to lose the game every year to give the Mystic Falls residents something to gloat about, but this year seemed to be different. 

Hope didn’t think it was fair; the Salvatore School should be able to win if they played fairly, but Headmaster Saltzman disagreed heavily. 

Even though her father was very particular in how she played the game, something in Lizzie seemed to just snap. Suddenly their team was making touchdown after touchdown.

Hope couldn’t help but get into the spirit of it all with the two little kids sitting by her. Lia and Pedro were utterly adorable. 

Lia happened to be the daughter of Bonnie Bennett, a powerful witch her Aunt Freya spoke very highly off. Bennett witches were like Mikaelson witches, born with great power and a need to harness it before it took over. Hope wondered if she could arrange to meet with Bonnie sometime and talk about their craft. 

The three became fast friends and spent the next two quarters cheering the team on. Pedro even lended Hope his homemade sign to use, which she enthusiastically accepted.

She had a thing for kids, something about spending time with them made her heart happy and content. She never really got to hang out with many children growing up, but her aunt recently welcomed a baby boy into their little family, and it was love at first sight for Hope.

She really missed him, Nik, after Hope’s father, which was something that was very hard to adjust to at first. Now, however, Hope really appreciated Freya’s dedication to keeping her father’s memory alive. 

She plans on doing the same one day when she has children of her own. If she has children, that is. 

Despite having a soft spot for kids, it’s still hard for her to ever picture herself spending a long time with a partner, let alone being a mother. But honestly, she just scared of never living up to her own mother.

Her mother was amazing; doing anything and everything everything in her power to keep Hope feeling happy, healthy and loved. 

She didn’t deserve to die the way she did, and Hope will never forgive her uncle for it. 

The trio’s cheering doesn’t go unnoticed, and soon Hope catches Josie’s eye. Hope is having such a good time being a part of something, she briefly forgets her plans on keeping Josie at a distance; she sends the girl a big smile, waving around her newly acquired sign. 

It felt good. 

. . . 

The Salvatore School lost, not by much, but you could see the devastation written on the team’s face. They played a good game, not exactly fair, but by what Hope could hear from the stands, the townies weren’t the nicest. 

The team slowly made their way to the center of the field for post-game high fives. And that is when all hell broke loose. 

Hope was on her way back to the main building, thinking about how much she enjoyed today, when she looked behind back at the crowd after hearing a loud commotion, and saw Lia and Pedro getting knocked around in all the ruckus. Hope’s eyes flashed yellow and she retraced her steps to get the kids out of the crowd. 

She’d only known the two children for a few short hours but she was ready to fight for them, no questions asked. Hope always protected those who could not protect themselves. 

She marched up to the boy in question who pushed the young ones, and yanked his shoulder back. He was a greasy, lanky teenage boy with brown hair and an excess of sweat; Hope had to hold back a gag smelling him up close. 

“What the hell were you thinking?!” She exclaimed, suppressing a growl. “There’s kids around here! Watch what you’re doing.”

Hope turned around to check on Lia and Pedro and make sure they were okay when she got shoved. She stumbled and nearly fell into the kids. 

This time, Hope didn’t bother suppressing her eyes or growl when she whipped herself around. Her fist made contact with the boy’s cheek, earning a shriek from the wounded. Her breathing was rapid, and her body was threatening to wolf out right then and there. 

The guy looked up at her from the ground in fear and quickly got up to his feet and scurried away.

Hope felt a small hand grab her own, and she twisted around quickly, her eyes still glowing yellow. Pedro jumped back, very clearly scared of Hope in that moment. She quickly pulled herself together and crouched to be the same height as the kids.

“Hey, hey,” Hope reached out to tuck a hair behind Lia’s ear. “I’m sorry if I scared you, I’m okay now,” Hope spoke softly, beginning to gently rub Pedro’s back as well.

The two didn’t say anything in response, but they took Hope’s outstretched hands and walked back with her to the school. She dropped them off to their respective teachers and made her way back to her own dorm.

She let out a sigh of relief as she fell backwards onto her bed. She was still glad that Penelope had invited her to the game. even if the two really didn’t get a chance to talk. However, she was really starting to regret punching that guy. 

Not because he didn’t deserve it, but mainly because of the impression she was definitely going to leave on all her new classmates. It was only her second day, and she was already acting like she had no self control, going around socking people in the jaw for the hell of it. That was probably going to make making friends slightly harder. 

Hope let out a frustrated sigh and rolled over to grab her laptop to throw on another episode of Cutthroat Kitchen before bed. 

Her mind couldn’t help but drift to Josie and how cute she looked in her uniform with her little space buns and temporary tattoos. But of course, even when she is just thinking of Josie, Hope can’t help but begin to feel guilty for some reason.


End file.
